This invention relates to the production of uranium metal and uranium-containing eutectic alloys useful in the production of fuel for nuclear reactors.
Conventionally uranium fuel for nuclear reactors is produced from a naturally occurring isotopic mixture of .sup.238 U and .sup.235 U which is converted to the hexafluoride usually referred to as UF.sub.6, and which has been processed to form the desired isotopic ratio of the two uranium hexafluorides by the well known gaseous diffusion (GDP) or gas centrifuge (GCP) processes and then typically converted to uranium oxide which is then fabricated into the desired shape, e.g., pellets, for use in fuel rods for nuclear reactors.
However, the gaseous diffusion process requires large amounts of energy to carry out the isotopic separation and also results in the productions of large amounts of fluoride wastes (frequently referred to as "tails"), creating an enormous disposal problem. This, in turn, has led to the development of better processes for separating uranium isotopes which are more cost effective and which generate less undesirable waste side products. One such isotopic separation process uses metallic uranium, or uranium-containing alloys, as a starting material.
UF.sub.6 could be used as a uranium source to produce the metallic uranium (or uranium-containing metal alloy) starting material needed for such a separation process, by reducing the UF.sub.6 using a reduction process such as, for example, the well known metallothermic reduction process (Ames process) by first reducing the UF.sub.6 to UF.sub.4, and then reducing the UF.sub.4 with metallic magnesium to form metallic uranium and a magnesium fluoride by-product. Reduction processes such as this, however, still result in the undesirable formation of large amounts of uranium-contaminated fluoride wastes and is highly labor intensive.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a process for the production of metallic uranium and/or uranium-containing alloys which would be economical and result in the production of little, if any, uranium-contaminated waste products, thus eliminating the problem of disposal of uranium-contaminated waste materials.